


Look For Joy

by QuoteMyFoot



Series: Word Prompts for Three Houses [11]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Just Add Kittens, Male-Female Friendship, Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:14:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23465977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuoteMyFoot/pseuds/QuoteMyFoot
Summary: When Ignatz is feeling down, Marianne seeks him out and shares a secret to cheer him up. After all, he's the one who taught her that you'll miss so much beauty if you don't lift up your head from time to time.A B+ support for Ignatz and Marianne.
Relationships: Marianne von Edmund & Ignatz Victor
Series: Word Prompts for Three Houses [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1535843
Comments: 6
Kudos: 20





	Look For Joy

**Author's Note:**

> The appearance of some kittens technically makes this a sequel to my other fic, [Summer Storm](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20326276) (Hilda & Marianne friendship fluff), but you don't need to read that to understand this fic. There's more kitten goodness there though!
> 
> **Written for the daily prompts on r/FanFiction. November 11 (Magnitude Monday): Unprepossessing.** I thought it fit Ignatz and Marianne well, since there's so much more to both of them than you see on the surface.

Ignatz found the work at Garreg Mach hard going. There was so much studying, which wasn’t so bad, but all the physical work! Training and fitness and spars, day after day. Raphael, of course, was in his element – he was already so strong, and he’d always had great physical endurance! But Ignatz was… struggling. He was exhausted every day, which made even the studying hard, and the only time they seemed to get a break was right before doing a mission and fighting for _real_.

The whole thing was… wearing. For the past month, he’d barely had the energy to sketch, let alone paint. He was determined not to fall behind with his work, after everything his parents had done to send him here… he had duties to his family…

He kept going. The days began to blur together. Eating became mechanical, but so, at least, did the training routines. Suddenly, studying was the hard part – Ignatz found himself reading the same page of a book over and over, taking in none of it. He had to start skipping things in his essays and notes, barely completing the minimum work when before he’d tried so hard to impress the Professor… he knew that disappointed expression all too well, but he didn’t know what else to _do._

“Ignatz?”

“H-Huh?” He lifted his head with a start, nearly dropping his fork. “Oh, Marianne! Hello.”

He’d completely zoned out in the middle of the dining hall and not even noticed her sit down opposite him. That was odd, since there were so many empty seats, she needn’t have sat anywhere near him… _Oh no. It must be nearly the end of dinner… I’ll have to eat fast._

He shoved a forkful of vegetables into his mouth.

“Are… are you…” Marianne’s voice was soft and quiet, but it still pulled his attention away. Her eyes widened and darted about when Ignatz looked up at her, but she didn’t duck her head like usual when she said, “Are you… okay? You’ve seemed…” She bit her lip. “…Distant.”

Ignatz flushed with embarrassment. “Oh dear. Have I been rude and ignoring you? I’m really sorry, Marianne.”

“Ah, n-no, I…” Now she did lower her head, mumbling something under her breath that Ignatz didn’t hear. He took the opportunity to shovel a few more bites into his mouth, because he was conscious of the serving staff hovering around them, but he nearly choked on it when Marianne looked up defiantly and added: “I’ve just been really worried about you! You seem so tired and sad, and I—”

“Ah, it’s okay, really!” Ignatz cut in. “I’m sorry I worried you—I’ve just… the work has just been a bit hard lately, that’s all. It’s my own fault for not being able to do it easier by now.” Marianne frowned. “Um… I’ll be fine though! I just need to work harder.”

She didn’t say anything in response, still frowning, and as worried as Ignatz was about being rude to her, he _really_ needed to eat; he was holding up the staff, and he still needed to do that reading in the library, and he had to add the conclusion to that essay about General Weitmann’s tactical errors in the Dagdan War—

Ignatz’s heart sank. Actually, it was sort of like _all_ of him sank, like everything became a physical weight, pushing down on him and wrapping around his throat very tightly until he could barely breathe, let alone eat…

He realised the plate in front of him was beginning to blur and quickly blinked the tears out of his eyes. He didn’t have time for this, and it was such a foolish thing to get upset about – he really did have no one to blame but himself, if he could get into such a mess over—

“Um…”

Ignatz blinked owlishly at Marianne.

She blinked back at him for a moment, but then her shoulders squared and she said, “When you’ve finished, there’s something I’d like to show you.”

“Oh…” He swallowed. “I’d love to, but I have…”

“Please,” Marianne said. “It will only take a moment.”

Ignatz opened his mouth to say something, but under her intense gaze, he wilted. “Um… alright. I’m sure I can spare a little time…”

But he carried the reading and essay with him like a lead weight in the pit of his stomach. He couldn’t bring himself to finish his dinner, and when he trailed after Marianne, it made every step feel like enormous effort, sucking up what little energy he had.

He was paying so little attention to where Marianne was leading him that Ignatz didn’t notice where they were until he realised she had stopped and sat down on the low wall overlooking the monastery’s cemetery. There was a little bundle on her lap, wrapped in a square of check fabric.

Marianne smiled softly, placing a hand on the wall next to her. “Come sit! They’ll be here soon.”

Ignatz sat, but mainly because the idea of standing for even one single moment more seemed unbearable.

_Maybe I really should just quit… write to Mother and Father… withdrawing early because I can’t do it is surely better than being expelled for being such a poor student…_

A tiny little meow roused him from his thoughts. Ignatz looked up to find, amazingly, a whole family of cats – a black mother cat sitting next to Marianne on the wall, purring loudly, and six little black and white kittens at her feet. They began to mewl even more loudly when she opened the bundle, revealing scraps of meat and fish. Was that why she was at the dining hall so late?

Marianne giggled as one of the kittens tried to stand on the head of one of its siblings to try to climb up her skirts. “Calm down, kitties! There’s enough for everyone.”

Ignatz didn’t think he’d ever heard her laugh before.

“This is Soot,” Marianne said, delicately handing a piece of chicken to the mother cat, who took it with perfect elegance, “and her babies! They lived with me in the dorms for a little while, but now Soot has a nice space behind the training hall to raise them.”

“Wow,” Ignatz said. There seemed so many, especially when Marianne turned her attention to them and they started climbing all over each other, trying to be the first to get their food. “They’re so lively!”

“They’re only a few months old, so they’re still very young.” She smiled down on them like she was a proud mother herself. “Soot is being such a good mama to her babies, isn’t she, kitties?”

The kittens gave a chorus of meows back as though in agreement, startling Ignatz into a laugh. A kitten which was nearly entirely white excepting a black tail and a black, heart-shaped patch on its forehead was the first to receive a piece of fish. It rubbed itself against Marianne’s legs while she fed its siblings. Marianne really had such a special way with animals – it didn’t try to steal from any of the others and instead waited with a twitching tail to receive its second treat from the bundle.

Soon the bundle was emptied, but the kittens and their mother didn’t leave. Soot washed herself imperiously, keeping her seat next to Marianne, whilst the kittens finally made the climb up her skirts, meowing to receive pets.

A few of the curious kittens made their way over to Ignatz cautiously, patting at his shorts with their tiny paws.

“It’s okay,” Marianne said encouragingly. “They like getting scritches from people.” Pointing at one of them, she added, “Hilda named this one Ignatz.”

With a sudden burst of courage, the kitten leapt onto his lap and attempted to climb up his shirt, showing Ignatz the dark rings around its eyes. Ignatz laughed so loudly that the kitten Ignatz hurriedly scrambled back into his lap.

“We both have glasses!” he said. He felt so light, like he was full of air, and he couldn’t help laughing again. “He really is kitten Ignatz!”

His laughter faded away, but Ignatz couldn’t stop grinning. He was aware, suddenly, of the warmth of the sun on his back, and when he glanced behind him, he could see the village and the rolling hills around Garreg Mach spread out before him. Even the cemetery looked beautiful, with the worn gravestones standing stalwart and watchful, casting soft shadows over the mounds they stood over, as though sheltering their occupants from the sun’s rays.

“I get tired too, sometimes,” Marianne said softly.

Ignatz blinked at her.

There were four kittens all lying on her lap in a heap, purring, and she looked down on them smiling, even as she spoke. “It’s not the kind of tired where you just need more sleep,” she continued. “It’s getting tired of… existing. Sometimes… sometimes it’s hard to even get up in the morning.”

Ignatz said nothing. He felt as though this was something Marianne had been wanting to say for a long time.

“The cure for that sort of tiredness… isn’t just to go on, lost in yourself…” She touched one of the kittens’ heads gently. “It’s to take care of people… look for joy… remember, once in a while, to look at lovely flowers in bloom, or to watch the colours of a sunset…”

_Oh,_ Ignatz thought.

Marianne looked up, but she turned her face towards the sun. The warm light on her face nearly erased the dark circles under her eyes, making her whole face look beatific and glowing.

“It’s still hard… but knowing that the kitties are waiting for me… seeing how excited they get… that’s what gives me the energy to keep going. So, um…” She glanced at him, a faint flush coming into her cheeks. “I think—I hope if you remember to stop and look at the flowers every now and then, you’ll feel better.”

“Actually, I feel better already!” Kitten Ignatz climbed off his lap, poking cautiously at the pile of siblings on Marianne. “You’re so right, Marianne. Thank you for bringing me to meet your cat friends.”

The lead weight in his stomach had vanished. The reading and the essay suddenly didn’t seem that important. Professor Byleth would understand if he said he needed a little longer… maybe he should talk to her about everything… she said she didn’t care for reading but enjoyed training, the exact opposite of Ignatz. She might have some wisdom to share!

Ignatz’s eyes were drawn to the view of the cemetery again. “You know… I haven’t painted in a while. Would you mind staying here while I go get everything? It might be nice to have some company if you don’t mind staying out.”

“Oh, if you don’t mind having me here, then…” There was a small, shy smile on her face. “I’d like to stay.”

“Great!” Ignatz said. “I’ll be right back!”

_Maybe I should try painting all the kittens, too, as a way of saying thank you. Then Marianne will have something to look at and remind her of joy even when she can’t see her cat friends._

But he would do his best to always be there for her too, of course. Even if he couldn’t be a real artist, he could still help his friends to notice beautiful things.


End file.
